


Distant Memories

by stardropsapphic



Category: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Dark Brotherhood mention, F/M, Healing from the past, Light Angst, OCAngstAndFluffWeek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 17:51:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20661293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropsapphic/pseuds/stardropsapphic
Summary: On the way back to Cloud Ruler Elaine makes a stop at an old haunt.





	Distant Memories

**Author's Note:**

> this was the fluff prompt but who would i be if i didn't make it angsty

Elaine wasn’t quite sure what she intended to do when she asked Martin if they could make a stop in Cheydinhal. The faces of the town had been meaningless to her for so long, and those she had known were long gone.

She walked down the streets in a daze. She could practically feel his brow furrowing behind her back, but she couldn’t stop her feet. Not until she came to the door of the old abandoned house.

It was still just as dilapidated as the last time she’d seen it. The windows were boarded up, patches of the roof no longer there, and weeds grew in what must’ve been a garden in another life. No one passed at that hour, and the bells of the Chapel of Arkay rang in the evening air.

“What is this place, Elaine?” Martin asked as he stopped at her side.

Was that a hand in one of the remaining windows, beckoning the wayward Listener back into the dank hideaway, or just a shadow? Elaine’s mind didn’t know the difference.

“Elaine?”

His hand found hers—it always did—and he stared at her with a worried gaze.

“The first time I came here I was given the passphrase,” she found herself saying. “’Sanguine, my Brother.’ Funny how things work like that…” She looked up at him. “I still remember quaking in my boots even though I’d been officially accepted into the Dark Brotherhood—after all the things I’d had to do to get to that point.”

Her other hand reached out, running along the rusted gate, and she looked at the house again. “It became home, for a time. They were my brothers and sisters. And then I killed them all and that home became their tomb for a time. It… feels so distant when I think of it now. Despite everything it doesn’t hurt so much anymore.

“It’s been so long since everything…” Elaine’s words were coming out in a rush. “But now I… I don’t have the dreams so often. And I think I can finally begin something new, something better.”

She let go of Martin’s hand and unbuckled the sheathed Blade of Woe from her belt. Opening the gate, she walked toward the door of the old house and set the blade down on the doorstep. _Arquen, I wish you luck in finding your new Listener._

Elaine turned around, shutting the gate firmly behind her. “Cloud Ruler, then?” she asked.

“Unless you want to delay another night?” Martin asked with a laugh.

She gave a small smile and wrapped her arm in his. “You know me so well, Your Highness.”

**Author's Note:**

> writing these two for the past week has been really fun and honestly i'm considering consolidating these scenes into a fic but don't quote me on that (college has a habit of getting in the way)


End file.
